The No. 15-ranked St. Thomas women’s basketball team received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and will face Loras College (Iowa) in the first round at Schoenecker Arena.

“We are very excited … that we have the opportunity to host here at St. Thomas. It is such an advantage to play in front of your own crowd in your own gymnasium, so we are just very excited to host and have an opportunity be at home,” coach Ruth Sinn said.

Loras (19-8, 12-2) earned an automatic bid after defeating Coe College 81-57 in the Iowa Conference championship game. The Duhawks also claimed the regular season IIAC title in addition to winning the conference tournament, their first conference title since 2003.

Loras is led by senior forward Katie Langmeier, who is averaging 14.4 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game and has started every game this season. Guard Kaitlin Phillips also adds a threat from the outside and has shot over 42 percent from 3-point range this season. Phillips is third on the team in scoring and averages 12.4 points per game.

“(We) are going to be exchanging film tonight … so we will be watching the film and taking a look at ourselves and what we think is going to be a great game plan for us,” Sinn said.

The winner between St. Thomas and Loras will face either Wisconsin-Whitewater (24-4) or Concordia-College (21-5) to advance to the sweet 16. A potential second-round matchup between St. Thomas and Concordia would be their fourth meeting this season.

Wisconsin-Whitewater was the WIAC regular-season champion and was undefeated in regular-season conference play. The Warhawks made it to the NCAA national final last year before losing to DePauw in the title game. Whitewater has been ranked as high as No. 3 nationally this season.

“At this point of the year, you are just excited to be in the tournament and you’re just going to play whoever comes next on the list,” Sinn said.

Jacob Sevening, Kyle Jonas and Christina Theodoroff contributed to this report.